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Important Note:  This program is not taking new admissions.

This degree is a STEM-designated program and will offer students broad training in all core areas of the discipline.  The MS prepares students for careers in a variety of industries, including government, education, law, language documentation, description and language archiving, natural language processing, and more. The MS also serves as an excellent foundation for doctoral studies in Linguistics and other language-related fields such as speech pathology, deaf education, audiology, law, computational linguistics, or the teaching of English as a second language.

Degree Requirements*
The MS in Linguistics degree is a 36-hour program. All course work and other requirements to be credited toward the MS in Linguistics must be completed within 5 years of beginning the program.

2025-2026 Catalog

Course requirements include:
15 hours of core courses
21 hours of foundation courses

Students who elect to write a thesis will take 6 hours of thesis LING 5950 in lieu of 6 elective hours.

Core Courses – 15 hours

*LING 5040 - Principles in Linguistics - Needed prerequisite if your degree does not have a background in Linguistics
LING 5070 - Research Design in Linguistics
LING 5300 - Phonology I
LING 5310 - Syntax I
LING 5530 - Semantics and Pragmatics I
LING 5990 - Graduate Research Seminar in Linguistics

Foundation Courses – 21 hours

The seven foundation courses should be decided in consultation with the graduate advisor.